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What is God's Plan? (Part one)

By Pat RobertsonThe 700 Club

CBN.com - I want to talk
to you today about something that I think is extremely important, and
that is, what is God's plan? Did you ever stop and wonder what it is
He has in mind? What does He want to do?

I was reading the words of the Apostle Paul that he sent to the church
at Ephesus. And he said something that I found very intriguing. He
said, I have been entrusted with a mystery. I have been a steward
of this mystery which as been revealed to God's holy apostles and
prophets in the spirit, he went on to say, which in other generations
was not made know to the sons of man, as it has that by revelation
there was made known to me a mystery (Ephesians 3:3).

So the Apostle Paul said, I found out a secret. He called it a mystery,
and he said, This was not made known to people previously. So what
he's going to tell us is something that was now revealed by the Holy
Spirit.

There is no way we can find out about things like this unless God
Himself, through His Spirit, reveals them to us, so he said, Now this
is revealed by the Spirit -- the Holy Spirit. Now, ladies and gentlemen,
if there's one thing that we need to ask God to do is to reveal to
us, by His Spirit, it is what His plans are. Every one of us needs
to be part of God's plan. You ask yourself, What is the overarching
plan of God? He is a God of great wisdom and He has a plan. He has
a plan for each individual. God has a plan for you. We don't understand
life unless we understand that God has a plan for us.

And we'll talk a little bit about what Paul says is God's plan for
individuals as we continue this series.

But what he says now is, This was revealed by the spirit to the holy
apostles and prophets. Now what are 'apostles' and what are 'prophets'?
The term apostle means somebody who's sent forth. The apostle is somebody
who, from what I can gather, laid foundations. They were the foundation
builders of the church.

The Apostle Paul went into areas that had never heard the Gospel,
and he preached the Gospel and he laid the foundation. The Apostle
Peter went to the gentiles, initially, and brought the Gospel to them.
Other of the apostles were people who were sent forth by God, and
the Holy Spirit made a revelation to them.

The prophets are those who have an interpretation, in a sense. They
can interpret the mysteries. And God reveals things to the prophets,
but they are not those who are responsible for laying the foundation.

Now Paul says, This mystery -- and to him it was a big thing. Maybe
to us today we don't think it's too much of a mystery. But he said,
It was revealed to the apostles and the prophets something that was
never known before. And that was this, that Israel, which had the
revelation of God exclusively, would now share that revelation with
gentiles.

Now you see, the Jews thought they were exclusive. They thought they
had the only revelation there was. And Paul says now this was never
known to people previously, but is now revealed by the Holy Spirt,
that God was going to unite the flow of history.

Now let me show you how this works -- this is very important. We
must understand how things happened from the creation. You've got
Adam and Eve right here, and people grew tremendously. And then there
came a flood that cut everything off, so it stopped again. Then a
new line began to come forth of all the gentile people. And in that
line was the line of the holy people, and that was the line of Abraham,
who was taken from the gentiles. All these were the gentile people
coming out of Noah and Adam. Thence, God created people, and the human
race was cut off at the flood. And then the gentiles just continued
to proliferate.

And in the middle was this Abrahamic group, and from that, of course,
came Israel.

And Paul was taught that this was the exclusive revelation of God.
And he says, Now the Holy Spirit has said this revelation has got
to be extended to comprehend the gentiles, that this is now not an
exclusive revelation, but this is a revelation for all people, because
in the seed of Abraham, there is one whose name is Jesus. He is the
Messiah. And in the latter days, God is going to bring his revelation
not just to Israel anymore, but to all people.

And the spirit of God revealed that to the holy apostles and prophets.
We'll be talking more about what God's plan is -- and we're going
to see what God's plan is for you as we continue this series.

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